The Sinclair Triceratops might look quaint to collectors spoiled modern toy brands, but it’s a very finely-made little figurine that’s quite accurate for its time.
I wasn’t too aware of the history of dinosaur toys and collecting until recently, when I came into the acquisition of a few older figurines from my grandparents’ collection.
Review by GiganotosaurusFan, photos by Dino Scream3232, edited by Suspsy
A long time ago, Edward Drinker Cope found the largest carnivore that ever existed, Tyrannosaurus rex, although he thought it was a ceratopsid, so he named it Manospondylus gigas. Eventually, however, Henry Fairfield Osborn gave it the iconic name that we know today.
However you look at it, Opabinia was a remarkably odd-looking creature – so it’s a natural choice for a big cuddly plush toy, right?
I’m guessing most people wouldn’t look at a five-eyed worm with a snaggle-toothed trunk and react with, “Aw, how cute!” Granted, most people aren’t paleontology nerds, either, so your mileage may vary in perspective.
I reviewed the original Attack Pack Gallimimus back in 2018, with its sandy brown color tones, it was the first of many Gallimimus toys from Mattel. Indeed, the Attack Pack Gallimimus has received so many re-paints over the last few years that I would be hard pressed to list them all.
This stand was purchased separately and is not included with the model.
270 million years before orcas, 250 million years before megalodon sharks, 170 million years before even the mosasaurs, the largest macropredators in the ocean were probably eugeneodontids, large fishes with bizarre tooth arrangements and cartilaginous skeletons.
Review and photographs by DrWheelieMobile, edited by Suspsy
British manufacturer Ravensden is nowadays best known for making plush toys of various extant animals, as their website states, “for the zoo, aquarium, leisure and promotional markets.” However, there was a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s when one would be hard-pressed to enter any zoo or aquarium gift shop and not find a rack containing another of their product ranges: the aptly, if unoriginally, named Inflatable Animals line.
The second set of dinosaurs in the Z-Cardz line reveals some surprising, if questionable, choices going on in the lineup for these little collectibles.
Constructible strategy games are a concept typically involving 3D punch-out card minifigures, which can be collected and utilized for play in large-scale games between players.
It was inevitable. Funko has now found its way onto the Dinosaur Toy Blog. Since this is the first Funko review on the DTB I suppose a brief introduction of the company is in order, not that it’s needed. Funko has managed to spread its tendrils into virtually every pop culture fandom imaginable and even if you don’t collect them, I know that at least a few readers here have a couple Funko figures around their home.
The island nation of Japan is usually not on the top of the list when it comes to dinosaur discoveries, but in the last few years, that quickly changed as more dinosaur fossils are found especially those from the Cretaceous.One of the most recent and exciting discovery from the Land of The Rising Suns is a nearly complete hadrosaur skeleton, Kamuysaurus japonicus.
Feathered dinosaurs are truly awesome and I adore them all, whether they’re from somewhere in the Mesozoic or still alive in the present, probing for earthworms on my lawn, swimming in the pond at the park, flying high in the sky, and so on. And certain of these extant dinosaurs are, of course, quite yummy to eat, especially when they’re from Swiss Chalet or Mary Brown’s.
Today’s review marks a small milestone for the DTB as it’s the last review for a Marx toy in the Medium Mold Group, Pl-750. This mold group was released in 1955 and was the second wave of dinosaur figures produced by Marx. All in all, 17 out of 23 Marx toys have been covered thus far.
A relic of toy trends from the 2000s, these cheap assembled models make for a decent little novelty item, as long as you’re delicate with them.
I’ve never been much of a “card” collector, so I’ve never followed the hobby closely, but I do recall a time in the early 2000s when 3D card models like Z-Cardz and Star Wars Pocketmodels became all the rage, at least within my own friend circles.
Review and photographs by Stolpergeist, edited by Suspsy
Spinosaurus has always been an animal of mystery; the way it has been depicted over the years changes drastically with each new discovery. Just last year, we saw a huge change in its appearance with a new publication about its tail.
The Marx Stegosaurus was first released in 1955 as part of Marx’s second wave of dinosaur toys, known as the Medium Mold Group, PL-750. The Marx Stegosaurus is based on the Stegosaurus painted by Rudolph Zallinger in his Age of Reptiles mural at the Yale Peabody Museum.
Kazunaki Araki’s sculpt reflects how our scientific understanding of Mosasaurus has changed, while retaining more classic, retro traits in appearance.
Dinosaurs have often been compared to modern lizards, perhaps because they tend to be a default image the general public has of reptiles. In fact, dinosaurs were only very distantly related to lizards; but while they were dominating the land throughout the Mesozoic era, a genuine branch of the order Squamata began conquering the seas during the Cretaceous.
